Save Article

The Glossies: More Than Words

In 1894, American artist Joseph Lindon Smith, 31 years old and living in Venice, wrote to his parents. The Smiths might have been expecting a letter of the "please send money" variety. Instead their son sketched himself, sitting at an easel, a cascade of coins from above drumming off his hat. "Behold your son painting under a shower of gold," he wrote. "I am selling pictures at every side and every day." Mr. Smith's...